


black suits you better

by Arlene0401



Series: Tumblr drabbles and oneshots 2018 [3]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Attempt at Humor, Goth Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Goth Mikasa Ackerman, M/M, Nerd Armin Arlert, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Pining, Tumblr Prompt, awful attempts at flirting, goth Eren Yeager, jock Reiner Braun, who needs enemies when you have friends like this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 22:45:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14963628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arlene0401/pseuds/Arlene0401
Summary: Eren has it bad for the new student, Armin. His friends try their best to wingperson him, but every attempt makes it worse...





	black suits you better

**Author's Note:**

> requested on tumblr by anon with the prompt: "Can I borrow that book of yours?"

“This is the perfect chance! He’s alone! Go on and talk to him, Eren!”

“No way, I wouldn’t know what to say…”

“Hellooo?” Mikasa raps her knuckles against his forehead. “Since when has that ever stopped you? Just steamroll him with the Jaeger charm. Destroying all resistance in your path is your speciality.”

“You mean, tripping over himself like a bumbling idiot?” Levi interjects, and Eren hates his two best friends with ferocity. Like every time they team up against him. 

Whatever he wants to counter is cut short when Levi just shoves him into the empty classroom.

The almost empty classroom.

The new student, Armin Arlert by name, is seated at his desk by the window and reading a book. He looks up upon hearing the shuffling in the doorway, and Eren is caught like a deer in the headlights.

Eren is so painfully gone over the newbie it’s unreal. From the blond ponytail to the bangs framing his oval face, from his ocean blue eyes to his delicate hands, Armin is perfect. Truly model material.

Definitely out of Eren’s league.

A tiny frown appears on Armin’s forehead as a discreetly struggling Eren is shoved, inch by inch, into his direction by the Ackermans. Until all three of them are planted by his desk.

Mikasa elbows Eren.

“Uhm, hi,” he manages.

“Hello,” Armin replies, tiny frown still in place. He looks wary.

“I’m Eren,” is the next bit Eren’s mush of a brain comes up with, and he extracts a hand. “Hi.”

Behind him, Levi rolls his eyes.

“Can I, uh, can I borrow that book of yours?”

Silence.

Armin holds his book a tad tighter and pulls it a fraction closer to his body. Gives a long, pointed look to the pile of identical copies on the teacher’s desk.

“If that is all… excuse me.” Armin’s up and out of the classroom before anyone can stop him.

“What’d I say?”

Mikasa palms her face and Levi groans.

********

You _what_?” Reiner cackles and showers him with mac’n’cheese. 

“Ew, Reiner.” Eren plucks some bits off his black sleeve.

“Let me reiterate.” Reiner wipes his mouth on a napkin and puts his fork down. “You cornered the newbie - a fragile looking, _intellectual_ newbie with ‘nerd’ written above his head in mile high letters - with your two goth-slash-wannabe-thug buddies, dressed up like _this_ ,” he indicates to the black and metal adorned entirety of Eren, “and asked a tremendously inane question that he could only interpret as a prank. And then you wonder why he’s running for the hills.” Satisfied with his summary, he digs into his lunch again.

Eren nibbles on his snakebite piercings and regards Mikasa - sleek black hair, smoky eyes and black lipstick - and Levi - mohawk and thirteen visible piercings, the edges of some unspeakable tattoo peeking over the collar of his torn up shirt. Then he looks down his own body, clad in a Skinny Puppy t-shirt, plaid shirt tied around his waist, black torn up jeans and tattered army boots with the shoelaces missing.

“You may have a point,” Levi agrees through gritted teeth.

“Luckily, Eren my boy, you also have some _decent_ looking friends to help you out. Come on.” Reiner dons his football jacket with the logo of Trost High and picks Eren up by the scruff of his t-shirt.

“Wait… Reiner, I don’t know if this is such a good -”

“Hello, you’re Armin, right?” Reiner booms in a voice that is most likely heard through the entire cafeteria. The hubbub arounds them subsides as all eyes are trained on Reiner, every inch the captain and quarterback of every high school in America, holding the scrawny Local Goth Kid like a bedraggled cat and smiling his most charming smile.

The person the smile is directed at looks positively alarmed, and this time, Eren can’t blame him. Reiner may look like a backslapping, nerd-shoving jock, but he’s one of the most soft-hearted persons in town. Not that Armin has ways of knowing that yet.

“Yes?” He says in a small voice, and Eren can see his foot already inching around the chair leg to get a proper headstart.

“Welcome to Trost High!” Reiner exclaims and takes Armin’s right hand in a vice grip. “I’m Reiner, and this here is my buddy Eren! He’s sorry about startling you earlier, but rest assured he couldn’t harm a fly - he’s just very very gay for you!”

“Uh, thank you I guess? If that is all - “ with that, Armin is off, leaving only a paper napkin behind that drifts to the ground in his wake.

**********

“No shit Sherlock, the poor guy probably thought you were making some homophobic joke at my _and_ his expense!”

Reiner shrugs in defense. “Hey, don’t yell. I was only trying to help.”

Both fall silent as Armin enters the classroom and scurries past them, but before Eren can pull himself together to say something the teacher is there, slaps a pile of notebooks on her desk and eyeballs Eren until he sits down in the foremost row. Eren sighs and resolves to suffer in silence. Ms Zoe is definitely not someone he wants to mess with.

**********

“I don’t know why I even talk to you guys!”

Mikasa and Levi roll over the school’s pristine front lawn clutching their bellies. Eren briefly considers kicking both of them. Knowing that Levi would probably snap his ankle in half is only a mild inhibitor at this point.

Levi finally comes to rest lying flat on his back, gasping for air. Mikasa sits up, wipes tears and smudged mascara off her face.It gives her the appearance of a panda with hay fever, Eren notes with smug schadenfreude.

“Friends are supposed to be supportive. Not like you assholes.”

Levi eyes him up and down. Eren combed his hair, fumbled all piercings from his face, and is clad in a freshly pressed polo shirt and clean bluejeans. “You really have it bad for Mr Model Student, huh?”

Eren shuffles his feet. “That obvious?”

“Honey, you could apply for America’s Next Top Groupie.” Mikasa’s voice isn’t unkind.

In the classroom, Armin grants him a sideways glance, and Eren sits up straighter. Okay, let’s do this. It can’t possibly get worse than yesterday.

The whole day, he tries his hardest to pay attention to the lessons. He even gets a couple of answers right. Ms Zoe clutches her chest. “My, Mr Jaeger, I’m tempted to believe you actually read your assigned text. Hark, hark! Wonders never cease!”

Eren’s face heats up and he wouldn’t be surprised if steam would start pouring out of his ears. He risks a quick peek to the window row and catches Armin ducking behind his book.

It looks as if he’s been smiling.

Well, even if he laughs about Eren it’s still an improvement from the startled rabbit look he’s worn yesterday.

Eren turns back, smiling to himself and willing the butterflies in his chest to go down.

When school finishes, he’s so worn out it takes him a moment to gather all his stuff. he doesn’t even register the figure hovering in his periphery until a polite cough catches his attention.

It’s Armin, and he looks every bit as if he wants to say something. To him. To him!

The butterflies explode.

“You have an interesting perception of ‘The Giver’. But I think you may have to change some of it after reading ‘Gathering Blue’.” Armin lowers his gaze and tucks a strand of golden hair behind his ear, and Eren swears his soul left his body. 

The ocean blue locks in on him again. “Maybe you want to discuss this over a coffee sometime…?”

How many times can a person die over the course of two days, Eren wonders.

Seemingly happy that he’s delivered what he wanted to say, Armin walks past Eren’s desk to the doorway. Halfway there he stops and turns around.

“Oh, and black suits you better, I think.” 

With a tremendous effort, Eren hauls his soul back. Today is _not_ a good day to die. Today is the day to tackle a future that possibly holds Armin Arlert smiling at him more often.


End file.
